All lasers fall into two categories: ablative and non-ablative lasers. Ablative lasers remove the top layer of your skin (peeling and crusting). This treatment is more powerful than non-ablative but there is longer downtime.

Non-ablative lasers deliver the same heat to the deeper skin layers but there is no peeling or crusting of the top skin layers.

Fractional lasers do penetrate the skin, and are sometimes used in surgery. However, for skin resurfacing treatments, most lasers are still considered to be ‘non-invasive’ treatments as the skin is not excised through surgery.

In fractional DOT therapy, the spacing of the beams means a lot of healthy tissues remain intact, whilst the ‘dots’ stimulate renewal and collagen to give a rejuvenated look.

Why do they call some Lasers, such as the Smart Xide CO2 laser, Fractional?

Fractional laser means that a laser beam is divided into thousands of microscopic treatment zones that target a fraction of the skin at a time.

How long before you see results from DOT therapy?

After a treatment, your face will become red and likely swell by Day 2 up to Day 5. You’ll have specific instructions for caring for your newly treated skin, but do expect some downtime and expect the skin to feel. It can feel like a severe sunburn and may be uncomfortable for several days, but this depends on the depth or strength of the treatment, which involves multiple different settings to target YOUR specific skin problems such as acne scars or facial wrinkles.

You’d be given a treatment plan, but typically most patients require approximately 3 treatments spread no less than 6 weeks apart for optimal results, which tend to be seen in 3 to 6 months after the treatment (or up to a year). That’s because the skin needs time to heal, renew and respond to the treatment – which will leave you with tighter, firmer and smoother skin – and so you’ll see results right after the treatment once the healing period is finished (1 to 2 weeks) but your best results will be more noticeable after 3 treatments and after 3 to 6 months when the skin has gone through its more full renewal cycle.

Our doctor can adjust the laser settings to tailor treatment and obtain the right approach for your skin concerns whether it is lose skin, lines or wrinkles, pigmentation problems or acne scarring.

Does DOT Therapy hurt? It looks painful

DOT Therapy applied to skin that has been pre-numbed with a topical numbing agent is usually very well tolerated by most patients. Typically, if the face is numbed properly, a patient will report a “3 to up to a 4” out of 10 on a pain setting. It’s not dissimilar to what you feel – briefly – when you have laser hair removal, only the sting is usually far less. It’s also a different technology so feels a bit different to IPL or laser hair removal.

It is usually less uncomfortable (less painful) than most people anticipate, and less painful than it looks like it might be.

The treatment can take 30 to 45 minutes not including numbing time.

You may like to have a complimentary RED Light LED shortly after treatment to facilitate healing and calming.

You’ll want cool packs immediately after the treatment and on the hour during waking hours for the next 24 to 36 hours if you can

Mild pain killers (over the counter) are often all you’ll need as it often LOOKS more painful than it actually is. That noted, if you have very strong settings – such as required for treating acne scars – the discomfort levels are going to be far more noticeable.

Most patients are readily able to tolerate the treatment with topical anaesthetic applied 45 minutes in advance

DOT Therapy Recovery time

The Recovery process after a DOT therapy procedure takes about 4-7 days, typically 7 full days.

For the first few days, you are likely to feel warm (to very hot) and will need to apply cool packs with protective cloths on them, to keep your swelling as minimal as possible. Swelling starts at about Day 2 and the redness can change colour, from pink to very red, over the next few days. You’ll be given specific instructions but typically you’ll need to moisturise every hour to keep the skin moist (using a gentle, non-active moisturiser).

This can vary from person to person depending on the size of the area treated and the severity of the condition being treated and the control settings on the DOT Therapy panel, which are customised to your specific skin concerns.

Queensland Radiation Health and Safety stipulate that (in QLD) doctor the only laser operators authorised to operate ablative lasers. For the full register click on this link.